Commands interest philosophers because they do not feel naturally true or false. “Close the door” does not describe reality in the same way as “The door is closed.” It directs action toward a possible future state.
In the Idea of Ideas, commands are not empirical because the commanded future has not happened yet. A command is rational when it directs someone toward a coherent and possible state of reality. “Close the door” is rational because the door exists, closing is possible, and an agent can perform the action.
Commands can also be irrational. A speculative command may be possible, but its execution depends on something unverified: “Bring me a living animal from another planet.” A disproven command asks for something we know cannot be done: “Draw a square circle.”
A rational command can also be forbidden by another rational idea. “Enter the building” may be physically possible, yet prohibited by law. The command remains rational, and the law forbidding it is also rational. The conflict is not about possibility. It is between two rational structures.
Commands also move through time. Instructions begin as rational ideas about a possible future. As they are carried out, the actions become empirical observations in the present. Almost immediately, they move into the past, where memory and history preserve them as rational stories.
